Indian Wine News and Messages : Nirvana Biosys

India’s lychee, mango and rose wines make it to 2012 London Olympics

anisha sharma — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 16:47:00 GMT

Indian wines will be served in various restaurants and pubs at London during the 2012 London Olympics. The Luca wines are created by Nirvana Biosys, the first ever winery in north India.

Not only sauvignons and merlot red and white wines, the wine lovers would be able to taste rare exotic Lychee, Mangoand Rose sparkling wines of Luca.

Nirvana Biosys, a joint venture with EC Oxenham & CY Ltd, Mauritius - wine makers for over 75 years with a French lineage, had recently entered into strategic alliance with Natures Bounty Wines and Allied Products Private Limited, a company owned by Amit Burman, vice chairman of Dabur India Ltd for distribution and sales in the domestic and overseas markets.

More: The Wine Club

Nirvana Biosys, India, launches Luca Cabernet Sauvignon wine this winter

anisha sharma — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:07:00 GMT

Nirvana Biosys, an Indian wine company, based in Haryana, North India (better known for its Lichi and mango wine), announces the launch of LUCA Cabernet Sauvignon in Delhi this month.

A well structured oak matured wine that has a taste of a true classics. Displays distinctive aromas of berries and oak, with a medium body and well-integrated tannins.

Alcohol Content-12.5% v/v
Serving Temperature-17-18 degree c

Being produced in the first ever state-of-the-art Winery in the North India region, Nirvana is extensively producing quality wines.
On the launch of LUCA Cabernet Sauvignon, Mr. M.K. Rustagi, Joint Managing Director, Nirvana Biosys said “For the lovers of red wines, aroma of berries and oak jumps from the glass poured with Luca Cabernet Sauvignon which delivers the more subtle mineral notes.”
Price: 750ml-Rs. 520
375ml-Rs. 260
Availability:Leading Retail Shops

About Nirvana Biosys:
Nirvana Biosys has set up a winery the first in North India in Haryana on NH-8 to Jaipur ,80 kms from Delhi ( two hours drive). The most modern winery has been set up on two acres of land with state of the art plant and equipments, having a capacity of 10 million litres per annum. Nirvanahas successfully marked its footprints in India and abroad including the highly potential Indian markets such as - Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Goa , Karnataka Andhra Pradesh and International countries including Dubai, Germany, China, Japan. It has all plans in place to enter the Maharashtra, Pondicherry, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and markets shortly.
Nirvana has the collaboration with M/s. E.C.Oxenham & Co.Ltd. a company with French lineage, who are into wine making for last over 75 years.

Winemaker: Mr.Patrick Oxenham, an Oenologist from Dijon University of France who has been crafting wines for over 35 years is our wine maker. At Nirvana, apart from premium quality Grape Wines we have in our portfolio the unique Exotic Lychee and MangoWines. Mango wine will be launched soon for the first time in India.

Nirvana Biosys wines for a 'sparkling' summer - The Pioneer

anisha sharma — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 10:16:00 GMT

Thinking glocal!

Nirvana Biosys Private Limited which collaborated with the 75-year old French owned wine-making firm based in Mauritius called EC Oxenham & Co to produce different types of table wines, in the `300-700 range, to compete with Sula.

Nirvana Biosys’ CMD Mahendra Gupta is a chemical engineer by training who said he has “long experience in fermentation. The fundamental part of winery business is fermentation of grape juice.” He remarked further, “My experience was that wines in India, imported or local, are not good as they get partially oxidised. When that happens products have no value because they taste bad. Even during refrigeration while shipping, oxidisation takes place. So when you open a bottle what you sometimes get to drink is concentrated alcohol that is like vinegar.”

Gupta set up a factory in Bawal, Rewari district, Haryana which is a manufacturing plant and has an R&D lab too. When their application to Haryana government is cleared, a portion of the first floor of the factory may be used for wine tourism. “We can start a small shop, and have wine-tasting sessions for tourists, stopping on their trip on the highway,” adds Nirvana Biosys’ JMD MK Rastogi.

Nirvana's products:

She, which is, we think, the only wine in India specifically targetted at, “the tender woman drinker.” It is a rose, a dessert accompaniment.

A port wine, Mitra 2000, which supposedly has a slight “paan-like flavour”.

Zoya, a pair red and white wines for younger clients costing about `300.

Luca label has red and whites from grapes of various varietals including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Muscat. They also have a sparkling white wine.

Their newest products are made of local Indian fruits — lychees and mangoes. It is from Luca’s Nectar of the Tropics range. Their mango wine is still not in the market because its R&D work is going on. But we saw the label EC Oxenham & Co use for their product. It is called Le Gold and is being made in collaboration with a Canadian firm, Puddicombe Estate Winery.

Production:

A large freezer room held large tubs of grape juice that had been imported from Italy. But Rastogi said “We are flexible. In the future, we may we use local grapes.”

Their current suppliers of lychee pulp are from Muzzafarbad in Bihar. A few hours later, back in Delhi, we managed to drink a few sips of the lychee wine.

Now we are looking forward to the results of the mango wine experiment. Gupta remarked, “This is where India has an advantage because we have hundreds of varieties to choose from. In fact, we produce nearly half the world’s mangoes. We have focussed on a blend of three types — Totapari, Alphonsa and Dussehri. One source for mangoes is Mahilabad in Uttar Pradesh.”

Rastogi added, “But we are not confining ourselves to these. Making mango wine has proven to be very challenging because of thick pulp. The filtration process is difficult. In fact, the Agriculture Research Institute has also been engaged in work on this.” One of the researchers said the mango wine will resemble the “sparkling white”. However, one bottle of Aneja, the Canadian brand of mango wine, revealed a product closer to a sunny yellow. Or was that the bottle reflecting light? The Lychee wine was released in mid-December while the mango variant is scheduled for a summer release.

More: The Pioneer

Chandigarh reports a 45% rise in wine consumption - The Times of India

anisha sharma — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 06:45:00 GMT

Wine consumption has witnessed a steep increase of at least 35-45% in the local market. The availability of more than 100 old and new international brands in city stores has provided wine lovers with a wide variety to choose from as a result of which there has been a shift in drinking habits, with the preference tilting towards the finer stuff. In the past six months, while Nine Hills has been able to register a 35% growth, Jacob Creek has marked its presence with a 50% increase.

Cashing on the health benefits and realizing the need to nurture a trend of drinking wine, manufacturers have introduced various brands prepared from exotic and healthy fruits like lychee, mango and grapes. Initially, there was a lack of awareness of these health benefits but the scenario is gradually changing in India. Joint managing director of wine company Nirvana Biosys MK Rustagi said, 'Wine has a long history of use as an early form of medication.' The collaborators of Nirvana Biosys have already produced exotic lychee wine that would soon be introduced in domestic as well as international market, followed by mango wine in the coming summer.

A young entrepreneur, Navjot Singh, said Indian and Indian-made foreign wine brands were becoming popular among city youths. 'To nurture a trend of drinking wine, vineyards are going all out by organizing plantation visits, informative facility tours combined with tasting sessions.

More: The Times of India

Haryana imports juice concentrate to make wine in Western India - Hospitality Biz India

anisha sharma — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:43:00 GMT

Haryana has joined the wine producing states of India with the launch of Luca and Zoya range of wines manufactured by Nirvana Biosys. The company ferments imported juice concentrate with the technical assistance and has a joint venture with Mauritius-based E C Oxenham and CY Ltd, a family-owned French wine company. According to a report in www.indianwineacademy.com, Nirvana Biosys has a manufacturing facility in Bawal Industrial Area, off NH-8 in Rewari district of Haryana. The company soon plans to launch carbonated, Spumante version of white wine and a low alcohol off-dry, Frizzante Rosé primarily for young women and novices, besides Mitra, a low-end ‘Port’ wine.

M K Rustagi, Joint Managing Director, Nirvana Biosys Ltd and Head of Marketing Operations said, “Eight brands of ‘Luca’ and ‘Zoya’ including Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and various blends have been introduced in 21 shops in Gurgaon, Haryana. Luca is priced at Rs 500 and Zoya at Rs 300 and designed for the younger generation, with modern labels and fruity flavours.

More: Hospitality Biz India